Public bars (so-called "open saloons") are illegal in these dry counties.

Another 59 counties (including Johnson County, the largest county in Kansas and the largest Kansas portion of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area) approved the 1986 amendment but with a requirement that to sell liquor by the drink, an establishment must receive 30% of its gross revenues from food sales.

In some "dry" areas, a customer can get a mixed drink by paying to join a "private club," and in some "wet" areas a customer needs a club membership to purchase liquor by-the-drink, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The newspaper demonstrates how variable the alcohol laws can be, even within small geographic areas. Move to Burleson, which has alcohol sales in the Tarrant County portion of the city but not in the Johnson County side of town." Today beer and wine can be purchased in all parts of Burleson.

Clay County was the last county in the state to prohibit all alcohol sales countywide, but became partially wet on March 1, 2016, when two cities in the county voted to authorize alcohol sales.

Within the 25 "moist" counties, 57 city governments have legalized alcohol sales inside their city limits.

33 states have laws which allow localities to prohibit the sale (and in some cases, consumption and possession) of liquor.

Still, many of these states have no dry communities.

For more background information, see: Dry county and Prohibition in the United States.